Harper’s Notes (10/14/24)

“The mad dreams of reason”: In the first Harper Review essay of the autumn quarter, assistant editor Liam Eifert surveys the life and the tragedy of genius mathematician John von Neumann. Troubled by the lack of rigor in their field, twentieth century mathematicians attempted to ground their discipline with simple axioms. But the project fell victim to hubris, as von Neumann and others realized—there are some paradoxes that cannot be resolved, no matter the rigor with which one approaches them. Eifert considers two recent books on von Neumann’s life and finds light in his tragedy. Though von Neumann’s discoveries in mathematics seemed to be useless, those discoveries became invaluable to the fields of computer science and quantum mechanics. Eifert argues that von Neumann found truth in mathematics’ imperfections and that perhaps we too ought to find beauty in mathematics’ impracticality.

Ghost stories for the gloaming: As we approach the winter solstice, the days become shorter, the sun’s shadows grow longer, and one’s mind, fatigued by the exertions of ceaseless study, naturally strays from the noonday light of reason into the shadowlands of the uncanny. In such a gloomy reverie, there is no better book to take up than Carmilla, Sheridan Le Fanu’s classic tale of a passionate but deadly infatuation. Set in a lonely, forested corner of Styria in the middle of the nineteenth century, the story follows Laura, a motherless young woman who leads an idyllic existence with her father, an English expatriate who has chosen to pass his retirement from diplomatic service in rustication. Laura’s life is dull—until one day, when by chance she encounters Carmilla, a spellbindingly beautiful young lady with a mysterious past. As Laura and her strange guest become more intimate, their connection begins to raise troubling implications—troubling not only for the reader who fears for Laura’s safety but also for high Victorian society, wherein the faintest hints of sexual impropriety are heavily censured. Part pastoral, part ghost story, part investigation into the inner workings of sexual infatuation, Le Fanu’s novella is the perfect tonic after long hours of study when, in the gathering gloam of the ever-earlier dusk, the mind’s eye becomes free to search out the dark corners of experience into which reason casts no light.

Platonic love for the polyamory generation: Sally Rooney, smash-hit bard of millennial malaise, has attracted significant attention for her modern portrayal of interpersonal relationships. But despite her young and hip audience, could her conceptions of love be against the times? Valerie Stivers argues in Compact magazine that for all her provocative prose, Rooney’s characters are classic examples of Christian lovers. Beneath the bad sex and anguished romance lies a portrayal of love as a near-sacred commitment to something greater, with dramatic tension arising from the failures to do just that. As Stivers notes, Rooney’s characters loathe promiscuity and non-monogamy and often find sexual relationships traumatizing if not with a “soulmate.” Ultimately, her writing works not because of its uniqueness or transgressiveness but because it “allows modern liberal audiences to enjoy the enduring appeal of old-fashioned, Christian, and specifically Catholic romantic forms without realizing that is what they are doing.” They enjoy, in essence, love without lust—the highest and loftiest form of love—now conveyed to us in SMS shorthand.